Does Your Company Need a Mobile Website?

Posted January 11, 2013byDonna

It shouldn’t be a surprise that mobile Internet surfing is not a trend. Experts estimate that currently a third of Americans use mobile devices to surf the web, and mobile surfing accounts for about 10% of international Internet traffic. What’s more, those numbers are expected to grow, which means the time is coming when mobile devices will be more common than desktops and laptops.

So how do you adapt to this multiscreen, multidevice world? Here are some ideas to get you started:

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes.

Stumbling onto a website that isn’t optimized for a mobile device is a common occurrence, so it’s probably happened to you at some point. If not, it’s not that hard to imagine what it feels like. It can be frustrating, it can feel like a waste of time, and, if the information your customer is after is important, they are probably going to go to another website, maybe even the website of a more mobile-ready competitor.

Assess your current website.

Is it optimized for mobile devices? If so, which ones? Keep in mind there are four major operating systems: Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, Windows, and Blackberry. Your website will look a little different on every device. If you haven’t started on a mobile version of your company website, don’t panic. Mobile computing is still evolving, and not everyone is completely ready for it yet. There’s still time to adapt.

Optimize for mobile.

So what does optimizing your website look like specifically? Well, load time is an important factor, since often the Internet connection on a mobile device is slower than a standard computer. Having easy navigation is important, since customers are more likely to come to a mobile site looking for something specific rather than just browsing. There are little things you can do, too, like making phone numbers and addresses clickable so your customer can call you or get directions to your business without copying/pasting the information.